The Festival of Three
by xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx
Summary: This is a oneshot competition between me, Mindful Demon, and Haiogh-Yai. It's largely Hannibal based but it could stray into other fandoms. Inspire your muses because there will be songs and prompts galore. To whoever reads this, I encourage you to vote on who you think won and why. Although we also voted among ourselves. I hope some of our works inspires fellow fans.
1. Day 1

Day 1 Round 1 Challenge: Put your itunes library on shuffle and listen to the song that plays. Use said song to write a piece in 15 minutes.

* * *

Hannibal sat at the head of his dinning table the long expanse of it stretched down into the shadows of the other side of the room. He could feel the static in the air of an oncoming storm. It prickled across the back of his neck. A single inhale brought the sharp scent of electricity and the smoothness of moisture from the currents drifting in from the window.

The charged atmosphere felt wonderfully appropriate. The storm was just waiting. He was just waiting.

And as he was waiting he reflected on the one thing that had been on his mind more often than not, Will Graham.

He was a peculiar little oddity that just happened to fall into his waiting arms.

Hannibal would admit if only to himself that he did not think much of Will upon first meeting him. It was one of the few first impressions of his that would ever be proven wrong. He thought the man was fragile, breakable, unique in his supposed gifts but only just.

Oh, but Will proved him wrong. The man was fragile but in the most beautiful way. Every case he watched as the man teetered back and forth on a knife's edge. Sometimes the man fell only to grip the blade and hang there from bleeding palms.

The more Hannibal interacted with Will the more he yearned to peel back the layers and layers of flesh, strip the man to his bones, and pick every neuron of his sweetly, swelling brain.

Will, the man that was so pure in his intent but so dangerously volatile. Hannibal had never seen a mind that fought to protect itself so fiercely that it destroyed itself.

A streak of lightening split the sky and the rumbles of thunder followed quickly on its heels. Hannibal gracefully rose from his seat practically prowling toward the shadows at the end of his table.

The dim lights only just caught the flash of the linoleum knife he wielded in his hand.

Yes layer by layer, neuron by neuron he'd unravel Will to his core.

A dark smirk curled at the corners of his lips and rain finally fell against the windows.

(xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx)

Song: Strangeness and Charm - Florence and the Machine

* * *

Eight year old Will Graham look uncertainly between a bouquet of poinsettias and a nice scented candle. Will wanted to pick the best present for his Mom that he could and Daddy said Will was big enough to pick something out all by himself.

His Dad didn't want to leave Will alone though so he was at the store down the street with Tony. Tony was Will's new puppy, his dad had gotten the docile mutt as his sons first pet because Will had trouble making friends.

Tony was named after Tony Stark because Iron Man was Will's favorite super hero. He was a normal person who stopped crime and saved lives but was never scared. He was even really good at dealing with people. Iron Man was never scared of getting lost in someone's head if he looked them in the eye.

Will shook his head, curls flying. He really had to pick out a Christmas present! Will really wanted to get both since that would make him Mom the happiest but he didn't have enough money.

"Hey there, William. What are you doing?"

Will whipped around, shoulders hunching up. "H-hi Mr. Renolds. I-I'm p-picking out a p-present for my mom."

The man smiled sympathetically at the young boy, "Oh? and what have you picked out?"

Will fixated on Mr. Renolds chin so he wouldn't have to look him in the eye, "I-I really like the f-flowers and the c-candle but I c-cant-"

"Too much?" Will nodded slightly, now looking at his shoes.

"Tell you what," Mr. Renolds said," you pay for as much as you can and I'll make up the difference.

Will tried to protest, he didn't want to be rude or a burden, but the friendly man would have none of it.  
After paying Will stammered out a thank you, still careful not to make eye contact, and hurried down to where his father was. Gifts clutched close to his chest as he tried not to look at anyone on the street.

That evening Will, his father, and Tony the dog left the bouquet of flowers and the candle at the grave of a dearly missed wife and mother in the local cemetery.

(Haiogh-Yai)

Song: The Christmas Shoes - Newsong

* * *

Their voices haunt her, fill her dreams. Not a night goes by that she doesn't see them, doesn't relive them. She was never there for the killings, but it was her job to prepare them. To lure them in for the slaughter.

Friends. They could have been friends. They were, for a short while.

She did her job well. She always had. Daddy's perfect little girl. Daddy's perfect, deadly little angel. This will be no different. She can never be an angel, she doesn't deserve it. But perhaps in her end, they will find comfort.

It will be easier this way, she knows it will.

Peace at last. Silence.

It's all she wants, now.

Closing her eyes, she steps from the stool, and with the sickening crack of snapping bone, the voices fall silent at last.

(Mindful Demon)

Song: The Lonely - Christina Perri

* * *

Winner: xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx

Votes:

xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx: Mindful Demon

Haiogh-Yai: xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx

Mindful Demon: xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx

* * *

Please note that because of time constraints there are probably some errors. I did a quick edit but there are probably still some mistakes.


	2. Intermission: The Clarissa Ship

"The lambs they were screaming. I tried…I tried to save one… but" Here her voice faltered, her last whisper barely heard, "I can still hear them…"

Marissa's eyes fluttered shut as her fingers brushed the fabric of her scarf and lingered over an old scar.

"No, the screaming never stops."

"But sometimes…" Marissa's eyes opened again and she stared at a distant point on the horizon, "…sometimes the screams get quieter."

"How?" Clarice half demanded. It had never gotten quieter for her. If anything they had gotten louder so she ran. She ran until she fell, and then she screamed. She screamed hoping to drown out the voices of the ghosts that followed her.

Marissa turned her gaze back to Clarice. Her fingers returned to massaging the old scar on her neck. She didn't answer.

Clarice looked furious for several long moments. She took a deep breath not sure if she wanted to shout something, but then she stopped the air rushing back out. This whole time they were talking. She never even realized but…it was quiet.

She locked her confused eyes with Marissa's. Tentatively a spark of hope lit itself. Marissa looked back at her blankly, but her lip twitched upward ever so slightly.

They stood in silence together.

All they could hear was the breath that whispered from their lips, the quiet thrum of their blood running beneath their skin, and the steady pulse of their beating hearts.

The moment was shattered.

Clarice cringed as the murmurs started to rise from the depths of her mind. Marissa looked on from her spot a few feet away.

A quiet sigh slipped past her lips and she unwound the black scarf looped around her throat.

Clarice startled as she found herself enveloped in the fabric. It was warm and smelt faintly of cinnamon. The murmurs retreated again and Clarice looked up at Marissa a quiet gratitude in her eyes.

* * *

AN: The scar on Marissa's neck alludes to a friend's headcanon.

"Marissa's apparent love for scarves stems from the scars on her neck, the result of a failed suicide attempt when she was thirteen due to her father's alcoholism and her mother's neglect. This failed attempt is what originated her mother's obsessive tendencies, and is one of the many reasons Marissa is so thoroughly angered by said tendencies - they are a constant reminder to her that only when she was near death did her mother express any interest in being a part of her life."

Clarissa ship inspired by tumblr


	3. Intermission: An Arissa Ship Part 1

Soft, golden light shone through warm green leaves of spring. Across the grass carpeted floor a dappled pattern of light and shadow played. The light spring breeze whispered through the air carrying soft scents of old rain and new growth.

Two young girls sat beneath a tall maple tree. They leaned side by side against its thick trunk in exhaustion. They had spent the day running through the fields together and now lazily absorbed the mild warmth of spring time.

A call in the distance broke the easy tranquility.

"Abigail!"

One of the girls sighed in quiet dismay. Her shoulder length brown hair was nearly pin straight and fluttered around her head as she looked at the girl beside her. Blue eyes locked with blue eyes.

"I'll be here tomorrow, Rissa." Abigail stood slowly and reluctantly plodded in the direction of the call.

The other girl still sitting against the tree looked gloomily after the departing figure. She looked very much like her friend. The same brown hair, perhaps a bit fuller and carrying a very slight curl toward the bottom. Similar blue eyes sat in a face rounded by youth. However, where Abigail was pale her friend was tan.

Day turned to the night and the tanned figure still sat wallowing in the shadow of the tree. No one had come to call this girl home. As a chill started to set in the girl stretched her cramped limbs and reluctantly headed home.

* * *

Days turned to weeks and the two girls continued to meet in the fields by the maple tree. The new green of spring started to darken as summer approached, and the weather grew hotter and more humid.

"Marissa…" Abigail murmured softly. Marissa turned to her friend surprised by the serious tone and the use of her full name. "We'll be friends forever." Here Abigail looked back at her friend their eyes meeting.

Marissa felt the fluttering of her heart beneath the layers of her clothes and skin and ribs. She felt a smile gracing her lips because forever was something no one had promised her before.

_"Useless girl!" A scream rose. Shadows flickered and an over head light blew out in a flurry of sparks. Things crashed and shattered on the floor._

Flinching slightly Marissa pushed those memories down. Well no one had promised her forever in a _good_ way. The smile from earlier crossed her face once more growing larger by the second.

"Yeah we'll be friends forever…Abigail." Marissa returned the sentiment using Abigail's full name, rather than her usual affectionate "Abby", to emphasize the solemnity of their vow. They held each other's gazes for several more moments.

A sudden breeze blew their hair into their faces. Abigail stifled a giggle before beaming at her friend and standing. She grabbed Marissa's hand tugging her from her spot on the ground and running back into the fields her friend in tow.

* * *

The next time Abigail saw her friend she found her bleeding and bruised, huddled in a ball beneath their tree. Her eyes widened and filled with tears and fear. She ran to Marissa relieved when she found her friend still warm and breathing.

"Oh god, Marissa!" Marissa stirred beneath her friend's touch cracking her eyelids open and squinting in pain at the figure above her.

"Abby…" She croaked weakly. Blurry memories of drunken slurs and hard fists and vicious kicks flew around her brain. She coughed out a bit of blood pooling in her mouth from her split lips and the wounds she made from biting her own tongue.

The two sat in the darkness for hours Abigail doing the best she could to tend to her friend and Marissa doing her best to hide how much agony was pulsing through her body.

* * *

Marissa wounds eventually healed and she continued to spend her days beneath that maple tree. Summer faded to fall and the leaves changed colors before falling and collecting into crumpled, dead piles at her feet. However, Abigail had not come again.

* * *

"NO, Dad! You've kept me from her for a week. No more!" The shout rang clear through the house.

"Abby, please…" Her father pleaded with her but his daughter would have none of it.

"No! You didn't see her that day! She was so…so broken." Abigail's shouting had faded to a pained whisper and tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. Angrily she pushed them back and glared at her father.

"Abby, I just want you safe. That girl isn't good for you and neither is her family. Please, all I want is you safe." Unfortunately for him his words only riled his daughter up even further.

"Safe?! How dare you speak of safe when-when…" Abigail's voice cut off, her words all bunched up in her throat and tangled with pure rage. She spared one last glare at her father before whirling around and sprinting from the house. She spared a moment to rip her father's coat from the hanger by the door. A scarf came with it wrapping around her limbs and almost sent her to the ground. Angrily she tugged harder pulling the hanger to the ground. It fell with a resounding thud and the door slamming behind her echoed in the silence of her house.

The house was still for several long moments before the man standing stunned in the wake of his daughter's fury sprinted after her.

However, by the time he slammed the front door open his daughter was commandeering the car and jerkily pulling from the drive way. _His eleven-year-old baby girl had just taken off with the only car._

* * *

A figure lay sprawled across the roots of that tall tree in the clearing. Her hair splayed out from her head intermingled with grass and leaves. She gazed at the pale moonlight that filtered in through the stretching branches and the few leaves that still clung there.

"…I…should have known better…there is no such thing…as…a good forever…" She clenched her eyes shut as a traitorous tear leaked from beneath her lashes. It crept its way down her cheek and landed silently on the strands of her hair.

A sudden wind whipped the branches of the tree ripping several leaves from their precarious perches and sending them to the ground.

Marissa groped blindly at her side clutching her fingers around the handle of a blade that had been hidden in the shadows. The blade gleamed cruelly in the moon light. She sat up and lifted it shakily toward her face smiling a bitter smile that didn't belong on anyone's face let alone the face of an eleven-year-old child.

"I'm not useless. …I'll give myself forever, Daddy…see?" In one quick motion she slashed her throat open just as a voice echoed across the clearing.

"NO!"

Red started spewing from the gash across her neck just as the sprinting figure of Abigail reached her. Marissa fell back, the blood loss already making her head hazy. Abigail caught Marissa's head gently even as tears poured from her eyes. A litany of "no's" fell from her trembling lips. Abigail now thankful for the scarf used it to press against the bleeding wound in Marissa's throat. It curved cruelly against the delicate flesh like a demented smile. _You're too late_ it jeered at her. _This is all your fault_.

Marissa's vision blurred as she gazed up at the sobbing Abigail.

"You promised me forever." Abigail only sobbed harder at these words.

"I know...I know" She babbled almost incoherently in reply. "I should have gotten away sooner. Oh god, Marissa I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Sorry's joined the no's and both interlaced with pleads to God to save her friend.

She continued to press the scarf against her friend's throat hoping it was applying the right pressure to stem the bleeding. Her other hand fumbled in the pocket of her dad's coat. She had stolen the keys from it to reach her friend and now her fingers closed around what would hopefully be a life saver. She yanked the phone from the pocket so quickly she nearly dropped it. It was her left hand that fumbled with the bottoms as her dominate right hand tried to keep her friend alive.

"911 what is your emergency?"

"Yes, h-hello please my friend is bleeding from her neck. …S-s-self-inflicted knife wound. Please"

"Please, remain calm. Where is your current location?"

If there were time Abigail would have shrieked at this person's audacity to ask her to be calm. However, Abigail _knew _she _had_ to be calm. She took a deep fortifying breath racking her brain for their location.

"Lincoln Field!" Abigail blurted as soon as the answer came to her. "Just by Lincoln field…oh god, please! Please."

"An ambulance is on its way." A _click_ signaled the operator had disconnected and Abigail let the phone tumble from her grasp not even bothering to hang up on her end. With both her hands free Abigail continued to apply pressure and prayed to God. It felt as if hours were passing. Abigail's tear filled, red-rimmed eyes kept staring into the dulling eyes of her friend.

The shrill sound of a siren and the almost blinding flashing of red and white lights was the most wonderful thing Abigail had ever seen or heard.

After that, time passed in a bit of a blur. Abigail remembered people pouring from the ambulance gently lifting her friend onto a stretcher. Their voices all blended together. All she could hear was the rushing of blood in her ears and her heart pounded away like a war drum in her chest. She remembered demanding a place in the ambulance beside the friend she'd left alone for a week. She clutched Marissa's hand even as the paramedics worked around her.

_Please, God_

* * *

AN: This just popped into my head and I though I'd post the first half I wrote out just to give anyone reading these something to munch on. Some might recognize the headcanon mentioned at the end of the Clarissa ship intermission. My friend did influence me in that. So if you see Mindful Demon make something that has similarities to this or Joytricia on Tumblr it's not plagiarism or anything.


	4. Day 2

Day 2 Round 1 Challenge: Have at least three writers. Each writer picks a song and a character for one of the other. Once everyone has a song and character they have 15 minutes to write about that character with the song as an influence.

* * *

There's a term for daughter's who mostly seek the approval of their fathers: "daddy's little girl". Abigail had done everything with her father since she was a little girl.

However, if anything Garret Jacob Hobbs was his _daughter's_ doting father. He brought her hunting, he brought her to the park, he brought her to the lake, and he even cooked for her. She was his everything.

All he ever wanted to do was protect her. Even if she hated him even if she grew to despise him he would always want to love and cherish her.

College was the worst thing that could have happened. He wasn't blind, he knew she was going to run off with that Marissa girl to some distant state and he'd never see her again. That was unacceptable.

So if he had to drag his precious daughter with him to lure girls from every college she applied to, if he had to mercilessly slaughter everyone of them, if he had to devour every one of them as a display of his love, if he had to remind his daughter of just how much she resembled those girls and how much she resembled Marissa then he would.

He would tear the whole would apart if it meant his daughter was by his side for the rest of eternity.

Garret Jacob Hobbs was devastated when he realized what he had to do for that eternity. To take a knife and sever his beautiful, wonderful daughter's throat was unthinkable. But he did. He would honor every part of her. Sacrifice was the greatest form of love. Once he had done that he could join her. He would have a true eternity with his daughter.

Getting shot was not part of the plan.

Death was a strange thing. The world warped between shadows and blood; it flashed with the energy of every departing soul. Garret Jacob Hobbs could barely tell up from down in this new world.

But not even Death could keep him from his daughter. Time passed in instants and millennia all at once and eventually his world expanded again. His daughter was the white light that flickered between the planes, a light he carefully guarded. His killer was a mass of tangled gray lines and he relentlessly tormented him.

Will Graham would pay for separating his daughter. He seeped into his mind (so easy when it was already so gloriously open) and tore at it. He gave him nightmares and hallucinations; he made him so very unstable. And at the very center of the man's being Hobbs put a borderline obsession with protecting Abigail. Yes, his killer would protect his daughter as even as he teetered and unraveled.

Garret Jacob Hobbs smiled.

(xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx)

Picked by Haiogh-Yai  
Song: One Reason - DWB feat. fade  
Character: Garret Jacob Hobbs

* * *

Franklyn has spent most of his adult life alone. That is not to say that he is not a friendly man - because he is - he is, quite simply, terrible at it. It seems only natural, Hannibal reflects, for the man to reach out to the only one remotely near willing to listen to him - and even then, the man in question is being paid.

Tobias, Hannibal thinks when he first hears the name, will be good for Franklyn. He was something to take his mind off of, well, Hannibal. To an outsider, the hope may sound shallow - cruel, even. But as anyone who has ever had the displeasure of meeting Franklyn (and oh, what a displeasure it is) will certainly come to realize, it is for the best.

The man's obsession with his therapist is, after all, downright unhealthy for everyone involved.

Tobias. The name crops up more and more frequently in their sessions, and perhaps, Hannibal ponders, there is more to Tobias than would first meet the eye. Such things are often the case, in this scenario. Hannibal can, after all, only think of three, very specific brands of people even remotely willing to interact with Franklyn without monetary encouragement. One looking to manipulate, the other looking to own, and at long last, the third, unlisted brand, the highest of quality and the one he himself falls into - one looking to kill. No one can help Franklyn but Franklyn. No one can harm him but Tobias. And as the two men stand face to face in his office, Hannibal sees for the very first time how far their relationship has progressed, and he is curious.

Curious enough to snap Franklyn's neck; curious enough to kill Tobias.

Curious enough to end what never should have been in the first place.

The world is better off for it.

(Mindful Demon)

Picked by xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx  
Song: Nowhere Man - The Beatles  
Character: Franklyn Froideveaux

* * *

Alana walked down the hospital hallway quickly. She hadn't been able (allowed) to see Will since Jack had shot him. Shot him for breaking down and getting too close like Alana had warned Jack about.

Frankly, she was still pissed with him and suspicious on how Hannibal had managed to miss any signs from Will. Will, who Alana didn't believe had it in him to fake a sudden break down.

Had he really drawn the clock Hannibal had shown them?

She snapped out of her thoughts as she approached Will's hospital room door and paused for a moment to compose herself before striding in.

Only to immediately lose that composer when she saw Will half on the floor.

"Will!"

She rushed over before helping him (he was awake) into bed properly.

"What happened? I'm going to call a nurse."

"Don't!" Will interrupted her, "I'm fine. I tried to get up and this," he shook the handcuff on his right wrist, "Stopped me. I hadn't noticed it."

Alana looked at the handcuff with distaste, "That th-. I can't believe they put that on you."

"They had to." Will responded. "I threatened to shoot an innocent man, didn't I?"

Alana looked at him for a moment. Will had sounded bitter (understandable), but he had also sounded bitter and sarcastic when he mentioned Dr. Lecter.

Was there more going on, like she had thought before? Time to take a leap of faith.

"I think something isn't right here." Alana said, observing Will closely.

"Ha, obviously."

"Not just you being handcuffed in a hospital room after being shot by Jack." Alana continued, "But with the events leading up to that. With Dr. Lecter. With the perfect clock he showed us."

Will looked confused, "Clock?"

"Not long before… everything. Hannibal showed Jack and me a perfect clock you had drawn for him a few days ago. You have a serious case of encephalitis so that is unlikely.

She opened her mouth to speak again but was interrupted by a wary looking nurse, "Miss, visiting hours are over. You have to leave now."

"I just need-"

"Now, please." The nurse snapped, eyeing Will like a rabid dog.

"Fine." She got up and turned at the door. "I told Jack not to let you get to close."

"Alana," Will replied darkly, "I don't believe Jack is the one to blame for this."

The nurse ushered Alana out.

(Haiogh-Yai)

Picked by Mindful Demon  
Song: You Found Me - The Fray  
Character: Alana Bloom

* * *

Winner: Haiogh-Yai

Votes:

xXAnimeXXRevolutionXx: Haiogh-Yai

Mindful Demon: Haiogh-Yai

Haiogh-Yai: Mindful Demon


End file.
